Residents spruce up trees with fun themes

Lorraine Imhoff of Wausau won’t unwrap Christmas presents under a tree decorated with sparkling tinsel or golden ornaments Christmas morning. Instead, Imhoff and her nine grandchildren will sit in awe of the tree she covered in plastic Tyrannosaurus rexes and dinosaur eggs, especially for the grandchildren. Imhoff, 68, picks a different theme for her Christmas tree every year. Inspired by her grandchildren ages 2 to 11, she decided to go with a dinosaur theme and hunted for toys throughout the year, picking up dinosaur books to place around her home, too. Judy Stoltz, 75, of Weston opts to decorate her tree every year in an avian theme with peacock feathers, life-sized cardinals and doves adorning her evergreen branches. Laurie Kloth, Stoltz’s 45-year-old daughter, said her mom always has been drawn to birds and decorates her house with birds, too. “Mom has always had a thing for cardinals,” Kloth said. “The cardinals are a good luck kind of thing.”

One dinosaur was placed in the mouth of another on the Christmas tree of Lorraine Imhoff at her town of Wausau home. / Daily Herald Media photo

So she covered her home at 115 Broadway Ave. in strands of white and red lights, set out a train display and spread fake Christmas trees across her front yard.

Those Christmas decorations, Rosandich said, have been the bright spot in the holiday season for her and her mother, Marianna Walley, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.

“I normally decorate a little bit here and there,” Rosandich said. “The last two years, she’s been in the nursing home sick. I promised her this year that she was staying at home no matter what. I told her if she made it through Christmas, I’d give her a winter wonderland.”

Rosandich often drives by her home on Broadway Avenue so she and her mother can admire the lights together.

“My mom saw and she was just so happy,” Rosandich said. “I do (the lights) for my mom.”

Across the Wausau area, scores of families are embracing the Christmas spirit by hanging twinkling lights, wreaths and posting inflatable Santas around their homes. Some families have such impressive Christmas lights that people drive by the homes and line up for a glimpse.

Pat and Nan Seidling of the village of Weston said their family, too, is the reason they string up thousands of lights every year around their duplex at 550 Birch St., often drawing lines of people in cars who pause to look at their display. Nan said her husband got serious decorating their home when their now 14-year-old daughter, Davieanne, was born.

“I think it was because we had a baby in the house,” she said. “(When) there’s a baby in the house, we have to have lights.”

The Seidlings’ display has since grown. They cover their front and back yards in lights and also prop up inflatable penguins, Santas and reindeer. Nan estimates their monthly electric bill grows by about $75 during the holiday season.

“It keeps getting a little bigger,” Seidling chuckled as she talked about the new decorations she stocks up on year after year.

Kathy and Norman Doan, 49, of Wausau said the Christmas-themed decor she spreads around her home puts her family in the mood for the holiday season. She also adds a sleigh, reindeer and a Christmas tree to the lawn of her home at 1273 Sunset Drive, reminding her of decorations her parents once put up around her childhood home.

“It’s just so cheery, I just so enjoy the lights,” Kathy said. “It kind of takes you back in time, gives you more of a mellow, nostalgic feeling. My parents did the same thing.”